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Jan 18, 2017dprodrig rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
This is entirely directed towards Americans and is a scathing assessment of how Americans view freedom. Despite all the good research in this book, there are times I got quite tired of reading about the Nordic Theory of Love. Anu hammers this point home incessantly. I also don't know how exactly she would explain Canada because if you examine our success using OECD figures, in some cases we out perform Scandinavian countries with fewer investments in our social system (relative to theirs). There are things you can take away to improve anything anywhere, but using the example I just mentioned, it is far too simplistic to say that the Nordic model is the only one that should be used in performing analytics in determining a good standard of living. It is one of many and I think they all influence and inspire each other. There are some lessons for Canadians in this as well, though much fewer. I will say, it was the first time I had a good explanation provided to me on the American health care system. Needless to say, I don't want it here and also believe should we be forced to move to a dual health care model and have more private health care providers entering our system that they too should be non-profit only. Doctors can have good salaries and we can achieve efficiencies through adoption of new bureaucratic techniques, working for affordable prescriptions, changing the model of homecare, etc, without supporting a system that feeds on the bones of our own people when they are in great need. Another one that had me thinking was the explanation of how school boards are funded in the United States, I can now understand the craziness behind their system. In Ontario, and perhaps other provinces, school boards are funded by the amount of property tax collected within a municipality. This can disadvantage those cities and towns that have lower property tax rates, and can disadvantage those school boards that are smaller with fewer students. Some of the comparisons can definitely be filtered for here too. All in all, glad I picked it up.